Taj Mahal

TajMahal Information

Situated in agra, Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful monument built in the Indian history. It was build by shah jahan the Mughal emperor. Started in the year 1628 it took around 20 years to complete the project.The main attraction of the building is its Tomb which is around 17 hectare complex. The famed complex is the outstanding examples of Mughal architecture, which combined Indian, Persian and Islamic influences.The glossy white marbel adds to the beauty when the tajmahal shine during the day time.

Shah jahan paid a tremendous price of around 32 million rupees. The chief architect was probably Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, an Indian of Persian descent who would later be credited with designing the Red Fort at Delhi. There were 20000 artisan and 1000 elephants who gave their efforts in building such a beautiful monument. The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage. It is also included in the sevens wonder of the world. Not just it is popular in India but also people from around the globe came to see Tajmahal. On an yearly basis around 8 million people visits the site.

Reason for the formation of tajmajal

The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, a Persian princess who died giving birth to their 14th child, Gauhara Begum. The gist mausoleum was completed in 1643 and the surrounding suburb were finished about five years later

About Shah jahan

Shah Jahan was a member of the Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid 18th-century. After the death of his father, King Jahangir, in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle with his brothers, and crowned himself emperor at Agra. He married to his better half Mumtaz mahal in 1612. She was his favorite among the three queens.

In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died after giving birth to the couple’s 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahan, known for commissioning a number of impressive structures throughout his reign, ordered the building of a magnificent mausoleum across the Yamuna River from his own royal palace at Agra.

It is also said that Shah Jahan had his minions cut off the hands of the Taj Mahal’s architect and his workers after the structure was completed, ensuring they would never build another of its kind.

Shah Jahan intended to build a second grand mausoleum across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal, where his own remains would be buried when he died; the two structures were to have been connected by a bridge.

In fact, Aurangzeb (Shah Jahan’s third son with Mumtaz Mahal) deposed his ailing father in 1658 and took power himself. Shah Jahan lived out the last years of his life under house arrest in a tower of the Red Fort at Agra, with a view of the majestic resting place he had constructed for his wife; when he died in 1666, he was buried next to her.

Taj mahal after the death of Shah jahan

Under Aurangzeb’s long rule (1658-1707), the Mughal empire reached the height of its strength. However, his militant Muslim policies, including the destruction of many Hindu temples and shrines, undermined the enduring strength of the empire and led to its demise by the mid-18th century.

Even as Mughal power crumbled, the Taj Mahal suffered from neglect and disrepair in the two centuries after Shah Jahan’s death. Near the turn of the 19th century, Lord Curzon, then British viceroy of India, ordered a major restoration of the mausoleum complex as part of a colonial effort to preserve India’s artistic and cultural heritage.

But this beauty of India in which thousands of people gave so much and now there is a threat revolving around it. Air pollution from nearby factories and automobiles poses a continual threat to the mausoleum’s gleaming white marble façade, and in 1998, India’s Supreme Court ordered a number of anti-pollution measures to protect the building from deterioration. Some factories were closed, while vehicular traffic was banned from the immediate vicinity of the complex.